Schism
by Casey Crowe
Summary: When you die, all traces of mercy flee from you. [Slowly, only slowly, they still want to make you believe you're the exception to the rule.] Your heart stops beating, your lungs stop heaving. [But your mind never stops working.]
1. So Cold

**SCHISM**

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**Author:** Salem

**Genre:** Horror

**Pairings:** Maybe a smidge of Sokairi, but that's about it

**Characters:** Sora, a ton of OCs. Riku and Kairi are mentioned a couple of times. ... And others, but let's not spoil the surprise, shall we? x3

**Rating:** Uh... something above PG. ' Language, cruelty, violence, maybe some gore. (In future. Not right off the freaking bat, people.)

**Summary:** When you die, all traces of mercy flee from you. Slowly, only slowly, they still want to make you believe you're the exception to the rule. Your heart stops beating, your lungs stop heaving. But your mind never stops working. If you try to go back, you become something horrible. To yourself and others. How do I know this? I learned it the hard way. Do you fear death? Then run, run away- while you can.

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_Introduction- The End Is Just The Beginning (So Cold)_

You're so c o l d but you feel a l i v e

What is death? To you, I mean. A short stay in oblivion before you go off to that 'eternal paradise' in the wild blue yonder, maybe? (Or that eternal barbeque 'down under.') Or maybe it's just one last blink, one last gasp, and then silence? 'Everlasting peace?' Must be nice- no job, no annoying people, no noise. No nothing. You'd be alone- utterly alone. Think of a blank white piece of paper; now think of being totally surrounded by that blank whiteness. Mm, oblivion. Nice.

Now remind yourself that the paper is black, not white. Afraid of the dark? Aw, poor baby, and you're all alone, remember, no one there to hear you scream. Alone, afraid, and in the dark, with no one to talk to, no one to cling to, and nothing to see but _(blackblackblack)_ shadows and darkness. Lights out for the rest of your life, baby.

Am I scaring you now? Yes; that's good, because you _should_ be afraid, it's easier when you're scared. What's easier? Now, now, we don't want to rush things. All in good time, my friend.

Now, you'll be happy to know that death isn't like that at all. You don't get feathery wings and a halo, or horns and a pitchfork. You don't lie there in the dark and simply stare at nothing, gibbering to yourself as the lunatic you'll have truly become. No- it's fast, and about ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, you don't even realize that's happened to you. You go to a lovely little underground chasm to hang out with the other dead people for the rest of your god-forsaken days. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it probably sounds. Just don't try to come back to the side of the living- your heart isn't working anymore, so you might as well be a Heartless, for all the emotion you still possess. Pity? Poof. Mercy? Out the window. Hunger? Well, now, that isn't an emotion, is it? So... it never really leaves you. If you don't want to find yourself munching on your neighbour's cerebellum, don't try going back. Don't. Trust me on this one.

Who am I? I'm Sora. I'm your new best friend- and, oh yeah, have I said it out loud yet? No? All right, maybe you should know, then.

I'm your new best friend.

And I'm dead.

Lay your h a n d on me one last t i m e


	2. Fade To Black

_Chapter One- Fade To Black (Camisado)_

(( It's not so p l e a s a n t and it's not so c o n v e n t i o n a l ))

"Guys, I'm going swimming, 'kay?"

Sora grabbed his towel off the sand and scrambled toward the shoreline, not waiting for a reply from Riku and Kairi, who were settled under a palm tree watching Selphie spar with Tidus. As Sora stripped down to his swimming trunks (hey, he'd come prepared, after all- he'd been positively _dying_ to go for a swim since he'd returned home from his latest venture, as Keyblade Bearers, he'd learned, didn't get vacations too often), he turned to watch the match from afar, wincing in sympathy as Selphie whipped Tidus over the head with that damned skipping rope of hers. While Tidus let out a howl and clutched at the top of his head, Sora threw his clothes onto his towel and sprinted into the surf.

At the exact moment that he turned around to see what Selphie was doing to Tidus (they'd abandoned their respective weapons altogether and were now deep in a heated argument over the merits and morals of pretending to be Indiana Jones and blinding their opponents with jumpropes), Sora heard a very distinct roaring noise behind him. Slowly, he turned to see a wave that was approximately the size of a small elephant heading straight for him.

"... Uh oh."

Yelling like an asylum escapee, he ran for the beach. Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it.

_Crash._ Sora was thrown into a crazy sort of somersault before skidding facefirst across the sand. Kairi was at his side almost instantly; Riku wasn't far behind her.

"Sora! Are you okay?!" Kairi demanded, nudging him insistently.

Sora groaned and sat up, spitting out a mouthful of sand before blinking up at her dazedly.

"Kai...ri?" He shook himself, ignoring the sand that cascaded off his front. "What happened?"

Riku grinned. "Wavezilla happened."

Kairi gave Riku a withering "what-are-you-laughing-for-he's-obviously-dying" sort of look and knelt in front of Sora, holding up one hand. "How many fingers?"

Sora counted three. Exchanging a furtive glance with Riku, he assumed a confident pose. "Five."

Kairi seized him by the shoulder and attempted to drag him across the beach, bound and determined to prove that he was on the verge of being comatose by the only way she knew how: taking him to see his mother. It took ten minutes of Sora howling at her ("Let go of my arm, dammit!") and Riku telling her it was just a joke before she was convinced, and only reluctantly did she relinquish her grip on him.

Sora flopped back down on the sand, massaging his shoulder and grimacing. "Three."

Kairi blinked, startled. "Come again?"

"Three. You held up three fingers, not five. Happy? You nearly ripped my arm off, dork."

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Sora, you can be such a wimp."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Xemnas!"

Sora let out a fake whimper and covered his head with his now thoroughly soaked towel. From underneath it came a muffled, "Damn wave got everything all wet." Kairi giggled before turning to look at Riku, who was staring rather seriously at the ocean. The waves were starting to get very choppy; more "wavezillas" were beginning to break on the shore.

Riku folded his arms. "Hey, Sora?"

"Yeah?" Sora pulled the towel off his head.

"Don't go swimming anymore today, all right? The water's getting really rough. I think a storm's coming in."

"Aw, come on, Riku!" Sora protested. "I'm a good swimmer, I'll be fine!"

"Famous last words," Riku shot back. "Stay on the shore." Ignoring Sora's whine, he tapped Kairi on the shoulder. "C'mon, the Dynamic Duo finally quit screaming at each other."

Kairi hesitated, looking back at Sora. "Are you coming?"

Sora shook his head. "Nah, I'm gonna stay here and sleep. You go ahead. Maybe I'll catch up with you later." As the pair left, Sora sighed and shut his eyes, scooting closer to the water so the waves were just barely lapping at his feet. Within moments, he was sound asleep.

He awoke a few hours later. The first thing he became acutely aware of was that he was wet from the waist down; the ride had moved in a little. That wasn't what had woken him, though. He puzzled over it for a few seconds, eyes still closed. It was a hollow sort of rushing sound... almost a roar, like a really fast gust of wind, or-

His eyes snapped open. A wave slightly larger than the one that had hit him before was coming straight at him. There was no time for him to yell, let alone move.

_**CRASH.**_Sora was engulfed in seawater, arms and legs flailing as the undertow of the wave dragged him back out into the deeper water. He struggled mightily to the surface, coughing and choking on saltwater as he gasped for breath. Frantic, he scanned the shore, looking for someone- anyone at all. He thought he saw someone walking in his direction further down the beach, but he couldn't quite be sure...

"HEY, HELP-"

_CRASH._ Another wave hit him from behind. Taken by surprise, he toppled forward, sinking under the waves. There was a funny kind of ringing in his ears now, as he sank farther down, and-

Sora knew no more as he sank into inky nothingness.

((It sure as hell ain't n o r m a l, but we d e a l, we d e a l ))

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Author's Note: WHOO. My first fic actually posted on And for once, it's not entirely a Humor fic. (If you found this chapter even vaguely funny, don't get too comfortable- it's going to be getting less and less funy as time goes on.) Anyway, yeah, this is my first attempt at a Horror fic, go me. oo Meh. Anyway, when in Rome... read and review, guys, read and review. - Salem


	3. Encore

_Chapter Two- Encore (In The Shadows)_

(( I've been w a t c h i n g, I've been w a i t i n g, in the s h a d o w s for my t i m e ))

The first thing Sora noticed when he awoke was that it was dark.

Very dark.

And yet... he could see everything around him, which was amusing in a strange, disconnected sort of way. This was a dim place, barren and damp-smelling. Bare trees stood in gnarled clumps on grassless knolls; there was no sky, no stars, only a dull stone roof. Everything had a dank, earthy sort of smell to it, like a root cellar in the middle of a humid summer. Sora took a step forward, and nearly fell- his legs felt like lead. Puzzled, he stopped moving, shivering and wrapping his arms around himself; he was still dripping wet, and still only clad in his swimming trunks. He hazily remembered going for a swim, but... how had he gotten here?

Almost instantly, he remembered the other worlds. Aah, that was probably what had happened! Bizarre, but it made sense, all the same: he'd somehow been accidentally transported to another world through some freaky wormhole something-or-other. Hey, it could happen. All he had to do was figure out where he was, find some friends he'd made in that world, hitch a ride home on the first gummi ship he could find, and he'd be fine. Yup, he wasn't going to have any problems whatsoever.

Confidently he strode forward (the drag on his limbs seemed to be lessening now, thankfully) and started down a well-worn path. He paused as he saw the silhouette of someone else walking ahead of him. Then he grinned, relieved. Surely this person could tell him where he was!

"Hey! Hello? I need help!"

In the freakish non-light, he could see the silhouette turn slowly around to face him. For a moment, it stood stock-still. Then, suddenly, it whirled about and broke into a startlingly fast run, careening straight toward a solid wall of rock. Sora gasped, knowing full well that it was going to crash, and at that speed, it would either injure itself horribly... or die.

"Wait, sto- huh?!"

Sora gaped in shock at the place where the person seemed to have disappeared into the stone. Disbelieving, he ran down the path, skidding to a halt before the rock face. He didn't understand; it was totally solid. There was no way for him to get through, so how had someone else done it? Squinting, he leaned closer to the stone. Wait- there it was. A slender fissure in the cliff created a small passage, barely visible unless one looked at it closely. Smiling to himself, he inched into it, edging along sideways. It seemed to take forever to get to the end; once he did, though, he found himself standing in what could only be described as a natural fortress. Sheer cliffs encircled the entire clearing; the only way in or out would have been through the crack he'd just come through. And, much to his relief, there were other people here, and lots of them. He spied someone nearby, hunched over a fire. It only took him two seconds to recognize the profile: it was the "disappearing" person from the path.

Silently thanking whatever higher power had influenced such luck, Sora stepped up to the stranger and tapped them on the shoulder. The person turned around; the flames from the fire illuminated their face as they looked up at him.

Sora screamed.

The man- his features had revealed him to be male- looked just fine. Until, that is, you got to the butcher knife buried almost to the handle in his forehead.

The man got slowly to his feet, arms outstretched. Sora panicked and scrambled away, his bare feet skidding on the rocky floor. His yells, however, had alerted a handful of other peple, and they shuffled forward, cornering him near the entrance. Sora pressed himself against the wall, scanning their faces quickly. They were all dead.

He felt as though he'd been doused liberally in cold water. His mind was reeling. What was going on? Why were all of these people dead? Then it hit him- he was probably in the Underworld, in Olympus. That even accounted for the weighty feeling he'd experienced earlier. Feeling a new surge of energy now that he knew what was going on, he called for the Keyblade, ready to do a little asskicking.

The Keyblade didn't appear.

Eyes wide, he tried again, calling upon his weapon more urgently. Still nothing.

Terrified, he looked for an opening among the undead attackers. Spotting a gap to his right, he lunged, arms outstretched.

The man with the butcher knife in his forehead tripped him.

Sora yelled, stumbled, and went down, smacking his forehead on a rock. The last thing he saw as the already-dim world around him began to fade back to black again was the ring of dead people leaning in over him. A hand reached out and clasped his shoulder firmly; he lashed out feebly as his consciousness wavered unsteadily. "No," he mumbled. "Wait, stop..." He fell silent as he passed out again. The group of undead, meanwhile, moved in closer...

_((I've been s e a r c h i n g, I've been l i v i n g, for t o m o r r o w s all my l i f e ))_

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Author's Note: Muah, cliffhanger. xD Okay, I'm thinking that I'm going to try and get into the habit of updating with two chapters every Friday. Works pretty well for me. And on another note... SUMMER VACATION HAS STARTED. AND I PASSED. (Much to my disbelief. xD) Just thought I'd throw that out there. ;D - Salem


	4. Wakey Wakey

_Chapter Three- Wakey Wakey (Unwell)_

(( I'm not c r a z y, I'm just a little u n w e l l ))

"- took a nasty bump on the head."

Sora groaned faintly as he began to regain consciousness. What had happened? Slowly, he reached up and touched a very large, very sore lump on his forehead.

"... Is he waking up?"

"Yeah. You'd better leave, Troy, you're liable to scare him into another faint. You too, James."

The person speaking was a woman, Sora understood; the one who'd spoken before her was a man. Okay, great, so his mind wasn't totally fried yet. He heard the shuffling footsteps of two people leaving. As soon as they were gone, he groaned louder and sat up, holding his head.

"What... happened to me...?" Slowly, he opened his eyes, feeling a cold shock envelop him as the dimly-lit cavern greeted his gze. _It wasn't just a nightmare, then. _Suddenly remembering that someone was nearby, he tried to leap to his feet, intending to run. After all- these people were _dead_.

He'd no sooner staggered upright than he heard a muttered curse. At the same time, his feet were kicked out from under him. He landed on his back. Hard.

"OW!"

Gritting his teeth, he struggled to prop himself up on his elbows, glaring at the offending person. He was surprised to see that the woman, despite being, well... minus a heartbeat... looked fine. No severed head, no butcher knives, no broken neck... nothing.

She smiled at him. No fangs. Even more disarming. Warily, he sat up straight.

"Are... are you dead?"  
"As a doornail."

He shivered. "Where am I? What happened to me?"

The woman pursed her lips and folded her arms, looked unmistakably incensed. "My... _friends_... gave you a rather overenthusiastic welcome. You hit your head. I think you're all right, though. Name's Kaya. Yours?"

Sora stared at her a little mistrustfully. "Sora. You still haven't answered my other question, though. Where am I?"She blinked. "Haven't I? Sorry, my mind wanders. Uh... welcome to the Land of the Dead, kid."

Sora tilted his head (and instantly wished he hasn't as the bump on his head began to throb painfully). "You mean the Underworld, right? In Greece?"

Kaya stared. "Underworld? What's that? You're one weird kid," she added, laughing. Sora, however, was not nearly so amused. On the contrary- he felt a fresh wave of panic rising in him.

"The Underworld! You know- Hades runs it? It's in Greece? Hercules had to go there once to save his girlfriend?"

"Uh... no? This is the Land of the Dead. Populations: infinite. Run solely by Death. Home of the LotD Zombinis, the only major league baseball team on this plane. Endsville."

Sora got to his feet, shaking. "But... why am I here? How did I get here? I was out for a swim, and then suddenly I'm in this place! This isn't right, I'm supposed to be at home right now! I'm late for dinner!" he added, stomping his foot. Kaya giggled, making him stop abruptly. "What's so funny?"

"It's been ages since I've seen someone throw a temper tantrum," she snickered, jerking her thumb over her shoulder at a few more fires near the far wall where other presumably dead people were sitting around. "Those guys have the emotional ranges of teaspoons."

Sora ignored her. "Look- I'm not supposed to _be_ here. I have to go home. Is there any way for me to talk to the guy that runs this place? I want to catch a gummi ship outta here, right now."

Kaya considered him for a moment. "We-e-ell... Death doesn't talk to just anyone..."

Sora snorted. "Yeah, well, neither did Hades, and I ended up _fighting_ with him."

Suddenly the woman looked faintly interested. "You can fight? Really? With what?"

Sora shrugged and held out his hand. He was halfway through his third attempt at calling the Keyblade before he finally gave up. "Okay, so it's not working right now. The point is that I need to talk to this Death guy _right now._ I'm the only living person here- that's gotta have _some_ kind of priority, right?"

He started to pull his hand back, but Kaya grabbed it, sliding her hand down to his wrist and stopping. Sora attempted to pull away. "What're you do-"

"Shh. Sit still for a second, will you?" She glared at him briefly before returning her gaze to where she was gripping his wrist. After a moment, she let go, raising her eyebrows at him. "Hmm..." Nonchalantly, she snapped her fingers, ignoring the startled look on Sora's face as a clipboard and a sheaf of papers appeared in her hand; part of the title on the top page was obscured by her thumb, but Sora could see that the first word was "Recently." Kaya flipped to a section marked "D," then looked up at him. "You said you went swimming, right?"

Sora nodded, bemused. Kaya began mumbling to herself, running her finger down a line of names. "S... S... S... ah, here we go. Sora."

He jerked and stood up straight, blinking in surprise. "Huh? I'm on your list?" A faint inkling of worry was beginning to grow in the back of his mind. "What list is that?"

Kaya smiled- not that it made him feel any better. "Recently Deceased. Make yourself at home, Sora, my friend. You're dead."

(( I k n o w, right now you c a n ' t tell ))

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Author's Note: Okay, so if I were in Sora's shoes (not they'd fit, the boy's feet are gigantic...), this would be the point where I'd fly into an irreversible panic, and God help anyone who got in my way. xD Anyway. You know what to do, guys. Read, review... be nice... xDDDDD


	5. Author

**Author's Note:** Okay, guys, I'm sorry I haven't updated yet. I know I promised updates every Friday, my bad. There was a last-minute thing last Friday and I got taken to a difference province for the weekend. And the hotel was, regrettably, without a computer. And then yesterday I had a friend over for a visit, didn't want to say "Okay, I'm going to go write a couple fanfic chapters for a few hours, have fun putting up with my psycho little sisters." xD You get the picture. I'm gonna try and get all four overdue chapters up as soon as possible, though, all right? 8D


	6. So Not

_Chapter Four- So Not (Firefly)_

((F i r e f l y, have you l o s t your l i g h t ?))

Sora stared in shock at the woman- the _dead_ woman, let's not forget that- who had just oh-so-casually told him that he, too, was dead.

"I... I don't believe you! I can't be dead, I'm only sixteen! There must be some kind of mistake!"

Kaya shook her head, looking at him with only the slightest trace of sympathy. "Nope, sorry. It says so right here." Shrugging, she handed him the clipboard so he could see for himself. For a moment, he was silent.

"I still don't believe it," he said finally. Kaya sighed wearily.

"Give me your hand."

"... Why?"

"You'll see."

Hesitantly, Sora reached out; Kaya took his hand and placed it on his chest.

"Okay, what do you feel there, Sora?"

"... Nothing..." His voice was barely above a whisper. "My heart... isn't beating..." His terrified gaze swept Kaya's face. She stared back, resolutely expressionless. Sora glanced back down at his hand. "But... I don't understand... I'm still breathing!"

"Only to speak." Kaya's tone was suddenly dull. She'd seen this plenty of times before. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"I still feel pain..." He touched the bump on his forehead, wincing.

Kaya gave a short, mirthless laugh. "You thought, maybe, that just because you're dead, you have the luxury of being numb? Guess again."

Sora fell silent again, staring at his arms- his pulseless wrists. His chest- containing a heart that no longer beat. He realized with a sudden, horrible jolt that the Keyblade was no longer coming to him because the pure heart that was supposed to call it was no longer alive to command it. Finally, he managed to find his voice again.

"What happened to me, Kaya? Why did I die?"

Kaya hesitated, not wanting to upset him further. When he looked up at her, though, she was startled to see impatient fury gleaming in his eyes, as though he knew what she was thinking.

_"What. Happened. To. Me?"_

"... You drowned, Sora. A wave knocked you under, and before you could get back to the surface, the undertow dragged you down. I'm sorry."

Anger gave way to despair. "... Riku told me not to swim..."

Kaya reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, your friends tried to bring you back. They saw you go under. They tried their best, Sora. They just couldn't move quickly enough."

Sora said nothing. Kaya had almost given up on communicating any further with him when he at last spoke up again. "Are they okay?"

Kaya blinked. "Hm?"

"My friends, Riku and Kairi. Are they okay? They didn't drown trying to get to me, did they?" There was a wretched sort of hopefulness in his tone; he didn't want them to be dead, but at the same time, he didn't want to be alone in this place. Kaya obligingly checked the list, ignoring the pained expression on Sora's face as he realized what he was hoping for.

"Nope, no new entries by those names." She paused, watching quietly as Sora turned away. "Sora... would you like to meet Death? Normally I wouldn't let anyone, but... you seem _really _ desperate. More desperate than most. I don't think you can be brought back to life again, but he can at least try to calm you down, maybe find a way for you to get a message across to the other plane. Plus, I can't help but feel as though there's something about you... something special. Something, well... different."

Sora smiled then. It was faint, and it was rueful, but it was a smile nonetheless. "Different? If only you knew." Carefully, he climbed to his feet, swaying a little unsteadily. "So... wherever you're taking me, there's someone who can help me, right? In that case, lead on."

-x-

Meanwhile, in a hazy room overlooking the main chamber of the Land of the Dead, a long, pale finger lazily pressed an intercom button on the desk before it.

"Send in the first one," a harsh voice rasped. There was a soft, staticky crackle that could have been interpreted as "Yes, sir" in reply, and then the intercom light blinked off.

The lean figure in the high-backed chair- the type, he mused, that the living would use in movies to make people of power seem that much more imposing- spun it about so he could stare thoughtfully out the window. The name on his list had not been a lie; it had indeed read "Sora." The person in the chair chuckled to himself as he rested his feet on the low window ledge, absentmindedly watching a half-skeletal flock of seagulls flutter past. "Well, well, well," he murmured, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. "I've finally netted myself a Keybearer."

Behind him, the heavy double doors of his office opened with a quiet creak. Footsteps started toward his desk, then hesitated and stopped in the middle of the room.

"You sent for me." The monotonal voice behind him made it seem more like a statement than a question. The figure in the chair spun slowly about to face the newcomer.

"Indeed I did. An 'old friend' of yours is on the way up to my office as of this moment. I thought you might like to meet him again."

"And who might that be?" The speaker was actually curious for a change. The man in the chair smiled gratifyingly and leaned back, crossing his arms. "All in good time. He'll be here soon enough. Don't forget- patience is a virtue, even when you're dead, Xemnas."

((Now I h a t e your ways, 'cause they're j u s t like m i n e))

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Author's Note: Muhaha. R&R, guys.


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